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Finance (No. 2) Bill

I am grateful to my hon. Friend for clarifying his point. What should the Government do about the poor productivity record that now blights health, education and other leading services? I hope that they will take the Gershon work more seriously. Gershon was on to something, and it is a pity that so much of the study remains unimplemented. When will the Government tackle the vast and bloated administration that remains in central Whitehall Departments and in quangos? When will they cut through the huge regional and national administrative overheads, and the comprehensive performance review and best value regimes that so blight local government and local service delivery? When will they get rid of regional and strategic health authorities and much regional government, which constitutes an unnecessary encumbrance, in England? When will they start using natural wastage in the administrative grades in the civil service to cut the numbers in a sensitive but sensible way? When do they intend to establish a target for a much smaller civil service, which delivers more with fewer people, rather than constant expansion every time a Minister introduces a new initiative? When will they procure things more intelligently? When will they cut through the huge army of private sector management consultants who receive generous contracts on practically everything of interest in the public services? When will the Government get to grips with the bad managerial organisation, which one witnesses health authority by health authority, primary care trust by primary care trust, that led to recruiting people last year and firing them this year, and an army of spin doctors telling us that nothing is going wrong and that no nurse or doctor will lose their jobs, only for us to read in the press that nurses and doctors are losing their jobs? The mismanagement is grotesque, and an enormous waste of money. An analysis at the weekend suggested that only 13 per cent. of the additional money for the health service has bought additional capacity, and nurses and doctors who can carry out medical and clinical tasks. Is it not a pity that we did not get half that money to buy the additional capacity that we so badly need?